A typical cellular wireless communication system or network includes a number of antenna systems that radiate radio frequency (RF) radiation patterns to define wireless coverage areas, such as cells and cell sectors. These antenna systems or base stations are in turn coupled to one or another form of controller, which can be coupled to a telecommunications switch or gateway. The switch or gateway may then be coupled with a transport network, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or a packet-switched network (e.g., the Internet).
A user equipment device (UE), such as a smartphone, tablet computer, tracking device, embedded wireless module, and other wirelessly equipped communication devices, can operate in the cells defined by the radiation patterns from the base stations. With the typical wireless communication system described above, a communication channel or link can be established between the UE and the transport network, via the base station, controller, switch or gateway, and possibly other elements. Thus, a UE operating within a coverage area of a base station can engage in air interface communication with the base station and can thereby communicate via the base station with various remote network entities or with other UEs.
In general, the wireless communication system may operate in accordance with a particular cellular air interface protocol or radio access technology. Examples of existing cellular air interface protocols include CDMA (e.g., 1×RTT and 1×EV-DO), LTE (e.g., FDD LTE and TDD LTE), WiMAX, iDEN, TDMA, AMPS, GSM, GPRS, UMTS, EDGE, and MMDS. These and other air interface protocols may define their own procedures for initiation of communications, establishment of communication links, release of communication links, handoff between coverage areas, and other functions related to air interface communication.
Many UEs are also now configured to connect to the transport network through a communication link established with a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point or router of the communication network. For example, a communication link can be formed between a UE and an access point under WLAN air interface protocols, such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. These WLAN access points can be separate from or included along with cellular base stations.
Depending on the specific underlying technologies, protocols, and architecture of a given wireless communication system, the various elements or nodes of the system may take different forms and may make up different portions of the wireless communication system. In one example, the base stations, the communication devices, and possibly other elements generally make up a radio access network (RAN) portion of the system. In addition, Wi-Fi routers or access points and possibly other elements generally make up a WLAN portion of the system. Further, controllers, switches, gateways, and perhaps other elements can make up a core network portion of the system. Although, in practice, different elements may overlap in one or more portions of the wireless communication system.
Illustratively, in a CDMA system, the base station is referred to as a base transceiver system (BTS) and the BTS is usually under the control of a base station controller (BSC). Further, each BSC can be coupled to a mobile switching center (MSC) and/or a packet data serving node (PDSN) for instance. In an LTE system, the base station is usually referred to as an eNodeB and a mobility management entity (MME) can be coupled to the eNodeB to coordinate functionality between multiple eNodeBs. Each MME and eNodeB can also be coupled to a serving gateway (SGW) and/or a packet gateway (PGW). In addition, these and potentially other systems can also include WLAN routers, WLAN gateways, and other components to facilitate WLAN communication links between UEs and the communication system.
Other architectures and operational configurations of the wireless communication system are possible as well.